1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a synchronizing device, and more particularly to a synchronizing device for synchronizing a pair of drawer slide mechanisms.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a pair of slide mechanisms with balls are respectively installed on two sides of a drawer or on a bottom of the drawer. Such slide mechanisms include a pair of inner rails respectively covered by and connected to outer rails for slidingly moving back and forth relative to each other.
Since gaps exist between the inner and outer rails of the slide mechanisms, when the inner rails move relative to the outer rails, the inner rails may be affected by an uneven force acting thereon and may not synchronously move in or out of a cabinet. Therefore, when being loaded, the drawer may wobble and may produce undesired rebound effect.
For improvement, as shown in FIGS. 26 and 27, a synchronizing device 9, as disclosed in Austrian Patent No. 006674U2, is provided for a pair of slide mechanisms 83 disposed between a caddy 81 and a drawer 82, so that the drawer 82 is able to move stably and smoothly back and forth relative to the caddy 81 (the figures illustrate only one of the slide mechanisms). Each of the slide mechanisms 83 has a longitudinal slide rail 831 disposed inside the caddy 81. The synchronizing device 9 includes two guiding racks 91 respectively disposed under the slide rails 831 (only one is shown as an example), two connecting devices 92 (only one is shown) disposed on the drawer 82, and a rotating mechanism 93 rotatably disposed between the two connecting devices 92 and movable along the two guiding racks 91. Since the synchronizing device 9 has symmetrical left and right parts, the figures illustrate only one symmetrical part of the synchronizing device 9 for the sake of brevity.
Each guiding rack 91 includes rack teeth 911 disposed on the corresponding slide rail 831, and a longitudinal ledge bar 912 extending parallel to the rack teeth 911 in proximity to the drawer 82. Each connecting device 92 includes a mounting plate 921 disposed on a rear side of the drawer 82, a bearing seat 922 disposed on the mounting plate 921 and movable upward and downward, and an abutting plate 923 extending from the bearing seat 922 and projecting toward the ledge bar 912 for abutting against a bottom of the ledge bar 912. The rotating mechanism 93 includes two shafts 931 respectively and rotatably disposed in the corresponding bearing seats 922, a tubular spindle 932 interconnecting and synchronizing the two shafts 931, and two pinion gears 933 respectively fixed to the shafts 931 and movably meshed with the rack teeth 911 of the guiding racks 91.
When the drawer 82 is pulled, the rotating mechanism 93 is driven for concomitantly moving along with the drawer 82. Each pinion gear 933 is meshed with and moves on the corresponding rack teeth 911. The abutting plate 923 is movable upward and downward together with the bearing seat 922, and supports a bottom of the ledge bar 912 to prevent the pinion gear 933 from disengaging from the rack teeth 911 when the drawer 82 swerves due to an external force. The pinion gear 933 is able to move on the guiding rack 91. If the slide mechanism 83 is obliquely assembled with respect to the guiding rack 91, the pinion gear 933 can still move on the rack teeth 911 without affecting the movement of the drawer 82 because of the use of a particular design of the bearing seat 922 for moving upward and downward relative to the mounting plate 921.
However, the conventional synchronizing device 9 is not able to decelerate the movement of the drawer 82 in either fully open or close states. Since the synchronizing device 9 does not have any damping structure for slowing down the speed of the drawer 82 relative to the caddy 1, such deficiency may result in collision of storage items in the drawer 82 during the final process of the fully open/close operation of the drawer 82. Besides, when the shaft 931 is forced to reduce speed and stop, abrasion wear and abrupt movement of the shaft 931 may occur, or undesirable continuous impact noise may be produced due to the rotation of the non-circular configuration of the shaft 931.